11/02/2025
I was playing pickle ball this morning and moved from playing outdoors in the elements to indoors in a controlled environment. I noticed that when I was indoors, I was consistently over playing the ball. I was hitting it too hard. I was hitting it out of bounds and consistently making more mistakes. I was in the same way playing as if I was still outdoors. What I quickly realized is that there was not the same normal things opposing me indoors when I was hitting the ball.
There was no wind to push against the ball and my paddle. There was no cold to keep my fingers from moving well. There was no gravel and grittiiness on the Court surface but a smooth wooden floor where the ball bounces completely differently. It felt like there wasn’t as much space indoors as the courts are surrounded by walls. It was super loud as everything echoed and it was very hard to hear making it hard to concentrate.
In short, I did not have the normal resistances and oppositional forces that comes against me when I play outdoors. There were different challenges.
This correlates to the law of 3’s in the enneagram. It states that whenever we are attempting to do something new, there will always be an oppositional force that comes against us. The force is necessary and a key ingredient in the law of 3’s as it is a necessary tension. There are 3 forces at work- the holy affirming force is what I want and desire -the holy denying force, which is the opposition that seemingly is coming against and preventing me from getting what I want. But there is always a third force that is affirming and always available which is the reconciling force of the new arising.
This is the movement of possibility beyond the dualism of the two forces working in opposition against each other. The reconciling force is mystery -possibility -thinking outside of the box- and even grace that shows up with alternatives.
When I am not focusing and obsessing about the opposition, but cooperating with this potential and available right action - there are new and different ways to actually get what I want.
As I noticed the overplaying and lack of elemental forces that I was used to- I decided to settle down and relax and try some other strategies. I started with the way I was hitting the ball. I started to hit it much more gently- with less force- I started to hit it with more strategy on placement and focused on opening up the court. I tried to stop over hitting the ball and just began to d**k it and hit it more lightly. I began to hit down the middle where it was harder for my opponents to reach it as i could execute that shot more readily with greater control on a hardwood surface.
All in all I had to change my strategy because the oppositional forces that are normally there were no longer pushing against me, and I had to think outside of the box in light of what was opposing me.
This is the beauty of the law of 3’s. Instead of focusing on all the opposition coming against us- we cooperate with Grace/mystery and possibility as the new arising offers oportunities to get what we truly desire. This happens by not focusing solely on the opposition but adding in some new strategies and being flexible to welcome something different.
This opens up a whole new experience in our life’s journey as we begin to cooperate and align with the greater possibilities of what if…. maybe… could this be an option…..ill try this….huh- thats an interesting idea- wow- hadnt thought of that!
The universe starts meeting us in new and different ways and we can have a greater experience of the yes’s while the no’s get more quiet. They never truly go away, but we begin to focus our attention on what is possible as opposed to why I am not getting what I want.
Thank you o’ great pickleball game for being my teacher this morning. Where would I be without you??
